ICVAX as a HIV Therapeutic DNA Vaccine

The clinical trial is a dose-escalation, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase I study at a single center to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of HIV Therapeutic DNA Vaccine, ICVAX, in clinically stable HIV patients under ART treatment.

This is a dose-escalation, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase I study at a single center to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of HIV Therapeutic DNA Vaccine, namely ICVAX, in clinically stable HIV patients under ART treatment. 45 patients will be randomized and divided equally into 3 groups to receive either 1, 2, or 4 mg vaccine or the same volume of placebo at 4:1 ratio via intramuscular injection followed by electroporation at 0, 4th, 8th, 12th week, followed by a 24-week follow-up period. The 5th administration (booster injection) will be conducted at 36th week and subjects will be followed for another 24 weeks. The primary endpoint is safety evaluation of ICVAX in clinically stable HIV-infected patients under ART. The incident rate of adverse events and abnormal laboratory results will be recorded for safety evaluation. The secondary endpoint is immunogenicity evaluation of ICVAX. Antigen-specific cellular and humoral immune responses induced by ICVAX, as well as the effect of ICVAX-ART combined treatment on the viral reservoir, will be assessed.